An environment of a broadcasting is changing as a technology progresses and a demand of a viewer changes. Recently, an analog broadcasting is switched to a digital broadcasting, and a broadcast medium is diversified from a terrestrial broadcasting to a cable broadcasting, a satellite broadcasting and an IP-TV service using a high speed communication network.
The digital broadcast is capable of providing additional services in various filed such as sports, movies, home shoppings and musics because a capacity thereof is four to eight times that of the analog broadcasting. A wide variety of choices for the viewer is also provided since various types of the broadcasting such as the cable broadcasting, the satellite broadcasting, a DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and the IP-TV are possible.
In addition, under a digital broadcasting environment, a digital TV application may be transmitted as well as a conventional TV program signal, and an interactivity may be embodied by associating with a communication network. Various data services using the digital TV application is expected to play an important role in spreading the digital broadcasting since the viewer may easily use the digital TV application.
However, the provision of the digital TV application in accordance with an conventional art wherein the digital TV application is transmitted to a receiver via a broadcasting network and the receiver executes the digital TV application to be provided to the viewer has following drawbacks.
A head-end system is a system of a digital broadcasting provider for transmitting the TV program signal including audio/video data and the digital TV application to the receiver via the broadcasting network.
Herein, the broadcasting network refers to various broadcasting networks such as a terrestrial broadcasting network, a cable broadcasting network, a satellite broadcasting network, an IP-TV service using the high speed communication network, and a DMB network.
The receiver decodes the broadcast program signal and the digital TV application received from the head-end system to be provided to the viewer. For instance, the receiver may be a digital TV or a set-top box in compliance with the terrestrial broadcasting specification such as the ATSC and interactive data broadcasting specification such as DASE in case of a terrestrial digital broadcasting. The receiver may be a set-top box supporting the broadcasting specification such as OpenCable and DVB and a data broadcasting specification suitable for the broadcasting network such as OCAP and MHP in case of the cable broadcasting or the satellite broadcasting. The receiver may be a set-top box or a mobile communication terminal supporting a corresponding data broadcasting specification in case of the IP-TV or the DMB.
The receiver may be embodied in a form of the set-top box, the television or a display device. In case of the set-top box, the receiver is connected to the display device to provide the digital broadcasting. In case of the DMB, the receiver may be is built into the mobile communication terminal or an independent DMB receiver. The receiver may be embodied in a form of a PC peripheral when the digital broadcasting is received by a personal computer. When the digital broadcasting is received by the personal computer, the digital broadcasting may be provided on a monitor connected to the personal computer.
However, when the digital TV application is transmitted via the broadcasting network, the digital TV application for a plurality of broadcasting channels are transmitted to the receiver.
For instance, the digital TV application is generally transmitted using a DSM-CC data/object carousel in the terrestrial broadcasting. In addition, the digital TV application is transmitted using an IP multicast scheme in the IP-TV.
Therefore, a number of the digital TV application is limited, and a size and a configuration the digital TV application are also limited.
For instance, a size of a data of the digital TV application corresponding to an HD broadcasting is larger than that of an SD broadcasting.
Therefore, the digital TV application corresponding to the HD broadcasting requires a large bandwidth for transmission, and the number of the digital TV application that can be transmitted via the broadcasting network is smaller than that of the SD broadcasting. In addition, a screen configuration or a scene configuration should be minimized such that the digital TV application can be transmitted within the usable bandwidth. Accordingly, various configurations cannot be used for the digital TV application corresponding to the HD broadcasting.
That is, because the digital TV application is transmitted using a limited resource, the number of and the configuration of the digital TV application are limited.
Therefore, a personalized digital TV application cannot be provided for the viewer.
Moreover, a long time is required from selecting of the digital TV application to loading of the digital TV application.
That is, when the head-end system transmits the digital TV application, the head-end system divides the digital TV application into packets having affixed size similar to the transmission of a conventional TV program packet. The receiver combines the received packets to generate the digital TV application. When the packet is lost during the transmission, the digital TV application cannot be executed for some cases.
A video data included in a digital broadcast program may be reproduced even when a portion of packets is lost by ignoring the lost packets and using other packets. However, the digital TV application cannot be executed when a portion of the packets thereof is lost. Therefore, an entirety of the data application should be re-transmitted, re-received and re-executed when an error occurs.
In addition, when the receiver receives the packet of the digital TV application, the packet should be combined according to a predetermined order, thereby required an additional time for the combination.
Moreover, even after the combination of the packets is complete, the digital TV application cannot be loaded dividedly, and the entirety of the digital TV application should be loaded and executed. Therefore, an execution speed is slow and a resource of the receiver is excessively used.
Due to above-described problems, the time required for receiving, executing and providing the digital TV application is 10 to 30 seconds. Therefore, it is very inconvenient for the viewer.
Particularly, in case of a broadcast network using the communication network such as the IP-TV, a TV program for a channel requested by the receiver and the digital TV application corresponding to the channel are provided to the receiver from the head-end system rather than providing an entirety of the channel and the digital TV application. Such configuration using the communication network may be used for the cable broadcasting, the terrestrial broadcasting, the satellite broadcasting using the return channel and the DMB in order to provide more channels.
In accordance with the configuration, the changing of the channel is notified to the head-end system, and the head-end system extracts the TV program and the digital TV application for the corresponding channel to be transmitted to the receiver. The receiver receives and provides the TV program and the digital TV application.
Therefore, the head-end system should additionally carry out a switching of the TV program and the digital TV application for the corresponding channel to correspond to the changing of the channel.
Because the time for receiving the digital TV application by the receiver and providing the received digital TV application to the viewer to correspond to the changing of the channel includes time for switching in the head-end system, more than 30-40 seconds of time are required to provide the digital TV application in the receiver. Therefore, it is very inconvenient for the viewer.
Moreover, the execution of the digital TV application is limited by a processing capacity or a storage capacity of the receiver.
That is, when a size of the digital TV application is too large, the digital TV application cannot be executed. Therefore, the number of and the configuration of the digital TV application are limited.
In addition, in accordance with the conventional art, the digital TV application is provided independently for each of the channels.
For instance, the digital TV application associated with the TV program is transmitted only for the corresponding TV program and is executed within the corresponding TV program.
Moreover, in case of the digital TV application provided independently as a data channel, the digital TV application may only be used in the corresponding data channel.
Therefore, a size of the digital TV application that may be executed in a single channel is limited.
For instance, in case a portal service function is embodied using the digital TV application, the digital TV application should have multiple functions in order to provide the portal service.
That is, the digital TV application for providing the portal service should have various functions such as a T-commerce function, a game function, a stock service function and a financial service function.
However, when the single digital TV application is configured to include the various functions, the digital TV application cannot be provided through the single channel due to an excessive size thereof. Moreover, the digital TV application cannot be executed in the receiver. Even when the resource of the receiver is sufficient to execute the digital TV application having the excessive size, a transmission time for transmitting the digital TV application from the head-end system to the receiver and a loading time for the receiver to load the digital TV application are increased. Therefore, the digital TV application having the various functions cannot be applied.
In addition, when the digital TV application is divided according to the function, i.e. is divided into the digital TV application for the portal function, the digital TV application for the T-commerce function, the digital TV application for the game function, the digital TV application for the stock service function and the digital TV application for the financial service function, and transmitted through a same or a different channel, the limit on the resource of the receiver may be reduced. However, the transmission time for transmitting the digital TV application from the head-end system to the receiver cannot be reduced.
Therefore, the digital TV application having the various functions so-called “mega channel service” cannot be provided.